Kevin Costner isn’t ruling out a return to “Yellowstone” as the wildly popular Paramount Network drama series finally barrels toward its final season. Costner and the production hit a logjam as the actor was trying to direct his Warner Bros. Western epic “Horizon” at the same time as filming on Season 5 of the show was happening. When the two sides came to a head, Costner says Paramount and series creator Taylor Sheridan “walked away” and Sheridan is now said to be exploring a final season without Costner in it.
“I’d like to be able to do it but we haven’t been able to,” Costner told Entertainment Tonight of his return to the series. “I thought I was going to make seven [seasons] but right now we’re at five. So how it works out — I hope it does — but they’ve got a lot of different shows going on. Maybe it will. Maybe this will circle back to me. If it does and I feel really comfortable with [it], I’d love to do it.”
Costner previously revealed that he was offered $24 million to star in Seasons 5, 6 and 7, but tensions grew to a boiling point when he wanted to whittle down his filming duties for the back half of Season 5 to just one week.
The first half of Season 5 started airing in November 2022 and wrapped up in January 2023. After the creative tensions between Costner and the production, Paramount announced that the second half of Season 5 would conclude the flagship “Yellowstone” series as Sheridan plots a new spinoff set in the same timeline, potentially to be led by Matthew McConaughey. That sequel series is set to premiere in December.
The “Yellowstone” franchise continues to be crucial to Paramount as its various spinoffs not only help anchor streamer Paramount+, but the original series has been airing on CBS in chronological order to impressive ratings.
Costner, meanwhile, is rolling out his two-film epic “Horizon” this summer thanks to Warner Bros. and hopes to film two additional parts to conclude that feature film saga, which he’s been trying to get off the ground for decades.
Filming on the final “Yellowstone” episodes is due to take place this spring.